In Sierra Leone, two western journalists have been shot dead and two have been wounded in an ambush by rebel forces on government troops. Four soldiers also died in the attack, which took place about 60 miles north of the capital, Freetown. One of the journalists killed was a well-known Reuters war correspondent, Kurt Schork. The other was Gil Moreno, a Spanish cameraman and producer for the Associated Press.
Elsewhere, the world's biggest gem dealers, De Beers has called for a global ban on the diamonds that are helping to fund Sierra Leone's civil war. De Beers says that the international diamond community, which is normally a very fragmented group, has been united in their efforts to prevent illegitimate Sierra Leone diamonds from entering the international market.
Sierra Leone accounts for about 1% of the world's diamond production which is now in the hands of the rebels and is in the middle of the current conflict zone. The majority of the remainder comes from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Australia. What legitimate producers want to do, according to De Beers, is to drive the these diamonds "in to the gutter" untiil the conflict is settled.
